


A Hat Before Time

by WrestleCrazyGamer



Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Doctor Who jokes very likely to occur, F/M, Hat Kid is too adorable for this world, Post-Canon, Prequel question mark
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2019-03-21 18:38:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13746924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WrestleCrazyGamer/pseuds/WrestleCrazyGamer
Summary: Hat Kid is home safe and sound and one night before bed asks her mother to tell the story of how she met her father.*Please comment/review - tell me what you liked, what you didn't, what could use work, etc. I must know your thoughts!*





	1. The Fateful Meeting

On the mother ship where Hat Kid’s parents live, she was ready for the first time she’d slept at home in a long time. Her mother has long red hair and often wears a purple gown and a multitude of hats just like Hat Kid and her father. Her mother’s favorite hat is and always will be the Patchwork Sunhat that can make emergency patchwork ground to stand on for a short while, mostly because Hat Kid’s father personally made it for her.

“Mom. How did you and dad meet?” Hat Kid asked her mother as she tucked her into bed.

“Your father never told you?” her mother asked.

“He weasels out of telling me every time…” Hat Kid pouted.

“Your father has a bad habit of forgetting important details, so he likely wanted you to ask me since my memory is better.” her mother giggled.

“Please? I wanna know...” Hat Kid pleaded hugging her mother’s waist.

“All right, but it’s a long story. It’ll have to be over a few nights if you want absolutely everything.” her mother smiled gently running her hand through Hat Kid’s hair.

“I do, I do.” Hat Kid smiled.

“If you insist, I will begin with what you wanted… how we met...” her mother giggled.

I was in my second year of middle school on my homeworld, Clockwork City. I still remember that gaudy black and blue uniform we had to wear. At the time we were being warned not to get tangled up with the local gangs, but it’s hard to do that when they corner you in your shortcut home isn’t it? I was scared they planned to do some, ahem, “untoward” things to me… when your father’s old spaceship, the one he gave you for your birthday after completely remodeling it, crashed right into them. The same thing happened to him happened to you, all of his Time Pieces went flying all over numerous worlds in the same system.

When he left that ship he was the same age as me. He was dressed in a suit that was such a shade of purple that it appeared black with a purple tint. He was, of course, wearing a top hat that matched his suit with a red band on it. Your father was mumbling… words… to himself as he assessed his ship’s damage ignoring me completely.

“Excuse me… um… I want to thank you for saving me.” I spoke trying to get his attention.

“Not now! I need to check the vault…” he shouted catching me off guard.

Your father clambered back into his ship and looked inside his time vault to find not a single Time Piece inside. The dejected look he got falling on his behind hurt to look at. That was when I noticed one of them at my feet that had somehow avoided leaving the ship. I picked it up and took it to him, surely I could get his attention with it.

“Excuse me, Mister Top Hat, but does this belong to you?” I asked presenting the Time Piece to him.

“Where did you find that?!” he exclaimed taking it from my hands leaping to his feet.

“It was lying at my feet. You looked so depressed when you lost them that I knew they must have been important.” I told him.

When he placed the Time Piece in the vault the ship dislodged itself from the ground almost sending me flying when your father grabbed my hand with the warmest smile I’d ever seen on his face. He took me to space with him where his ship remained in low orbit. The view took my breath away. The stars were brightly twinkling and I could see for miles on my homeworld. Your father took my hand and my face flushed as I was sure he was going to propose…

“Will you help me recollect the 59 remaining pieces I’m missing?” he asked me.

“Yes.” was all I could respond with. How could I respond with anything else? I wanted to know more about this mystery man I’d known for all of ten minutes as well.


	2. Clockwork Town Act 1 - Correcting the Clocks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The clock towers of Clockwork Town aren't working right.

It was the dead of night when we returned to the surface. The four clock towers around town were not functioning properly, displaying the wrong time of day. A mob was gathered outside the mayor’s house demanding an explanation, but the mayor was just as confused. Your father knew better though… it was the work of Time Pieces, if his expression was anything to by.

“Time Pieces on their own aren’t too difficult to reclaim, but if they find something to cling to… it can get dicey.” he told me before rushing off.

I followed him through town and we soon arrived at the shortest of the four towers, St. Alice, which was displaying 3:00 PM. He scanned that tower so fast he already had a quill and paper out mapping a route upward by the time I’d even finished looking at the tower. He was evidently very good at tower climbing, or wasn’t a very good pilot and was used to this. Your father never did confirm nor deny which it was. 

“You might want to put some pants on before attempting the climb. You’re in a skirt after all.” he told me before rushing the tower beginning to climb up using the structure to his advantage.

“A little wind never bothered me.” I had growled chasing after him.

Each balcony allowed us to climb the stairs for a while until we’d reach a locked door. The security systems nearly caught us a few times. We’d have had sentry turrets on us in an instant. At the halfway marker I thought we were stuck, but the bell ropes gave your father an idea.

“Hope you know how to climb ropes.” he told me before leaping out to one of them starting to ascend.

“We’re rather high up… can you perhaps unlock the door from the other side?” I asked him looking at how high we’d gotten.

“I understand, we don’t want anyone looking up your skirt now do we?” he answered, seeming to miss why I had asked.

I watched his athleticism going rope to rope and ledge to ledge to reach the windows above the door, sneak through, and drop down to unlock the door for me. The wind was really getting strong now as well. We had to hold tight to the ladders and ledges now.

“Is it always this windy?” he asked me.

“Normally only in the winter months. It’s summer right now.” I answered.

“That means the Time Piece has recognized that we’re after it. Should make getting it a piece of cake then.” he chuckled.

“What do the Time Pieces do besides power your ship?” I asked him.

“They keep the fabric of time in a wibbly wobbly timey wimey state. If someone abuses their power trying to change what has already been then they risk ripping the entire multiverse apart. They aren’t toys and must be treated with the respect they deserve.” he answered.

“So what should they be used for?” I asked him.

“I’ll tell you when I remember what that was.” he answered.

We continued our ascent eventually reaching the door to the clock’s insides. There was only one way inside, so it looked like we were stuck. Your father then showed me he’s always prepared pulling a bobby pin from his shoe to pick the lock with. We got inside and sure enough there was the Time Piece floating above the gears and inner workings on the topmost floor. 

“Now what do we do? Those ladders only descend when there’s daylight on the sensors.” I asked him.

“Your skirt could get caught on something so stay here.” he told me before taking to a path that made me nervous every second I watched it.

Every leap and bound was heartpoundingly close for comfort. Top Hat, as your father was called at the time, had no fear of death it seemed. It was that or he was too focused on the Time Piece to register his situation. He used the bell ropes once more to get to the balcony upward kicking down a ladder for me. I was shaking from the adrenaline rush seeing him had given me as I climbed up. 

He snatched the Time Piece causing the locked gears to start moving again at rapid speed. The clock was correcting itself before our very eyes! He pulled a grappling hook from his coat when the door below was kicked in and Clockwork Police stormed in. Chief of Police Varuka then stormed in with her revolver at the ready as Top Hat fired his grappling hook to the suspension wires above the city to swing to another clock tower. 

“Freeze! You’re under arrest for breaking and entering!” Varuka called aiming her gun at us as your father hugged my waist with a grin on his face.

He then fell back on purpose terrifying me. He had a hold of me, but I was still screaming scared for the worst. I will admit, I flailed a bit, but your father did not let go. We had swung all the way across Clockwork Town to another tower that needed correcting. Strangely there wasn’t another Time Piece, but your father displayed their power by correcting the clock remotely from it. We then swung to another, and then the last, correcting them with the Time Piece.

“TOP HAT!!! I’LL NEVER LET YOU ESCAPE!!!” Varuka roared in fury from the tower she was at.

“Well, let’s return to my ship for now. I think it’s best to lie low until noon at the least.” Top Hat smiled at me, and then used the Time Piece to warp us there.

He placed the Time Piece in the vault and the lights in the ship all turned on at once. I could tell that he was happy to have power back to everything besides the engines. With a tired yawn and stretch I got to see him take his hat off letting down his hair. You definitely took after him now that I think about it, you’re just more diligent about grooming your hair. He had a habit of leaving his hair a total mess under that hat of his. 

He showed me to the guest room and where the bath was. I forced him to bathe when he said he was going straight to bed. In a way it seemed like he was a child in an adolescent’s body, but in a way he wasn’t. To this day your father still has some skeletons in his closet that I don’t know about…


End file.
